- Checkout.com refuses to pay ShinyHunters ransom following breach
- The ransom amount will be donated to two universities.
- CTO Mariano Albera emphasizes “security, transparency and trust”
Checkout.com CTO Mariano Albera confirmed that the company was targeted in a digital extortion attempt by the ShinyHunters group during the first week of November 2025, but the outcome might not be what one would expect.
The attackers accessed an old third-party cloud file storage system that had not been properly decommissioned by Checkout.com, affecting internal operating documents and merchant onboarding documents from 2020 and earlier.
“We estimate that this would affect less than 25% of our current merchant base,” Albera noted.
Due to the nature of the breach, live payment processing systems were not impacted and attackers did not have access to merchant funds or card numbers.
CTO Mariano Albera publicly apologized for the incident, taking full responsibility for the oversight. However, Checkout.com confirmed that it would not pay the ransom demanded by ShinyHunters: “We will not allow ourselves to be extorted by criminals. We will not pay this ransom.”
The company chose to donate the ransom amount to Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Oxford Cybersecurity Center “to support their research in the fight against cybercrime.”
“Security, transparency and trust are the foundations of our industry. We will own our mistakes, protect our merchants and invest in the fight against criminal actors who threaten our digital economy,” added Albera.
Checkout.com has been praised for its transparency and refusal to fund criminal activity. It is unclear how much was donated to the two university research centers.
In the meantime, Checkout.com is contacting affected customers and coordinating with law enforcement and regulators.
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